This invention relates generally to luggage items such as suitcases and garment bags and the like used by travelers to transport clothing and other personal items. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved luggage bag adapted to shift quickly and easily between a substantially rigid configuration, and a relatively soft and flexible configuration.
Luggage products such as suitcases and garment bags and the like are well-known for use by travelers to carry and store clothing and other personal items. Such luggage products are available in a wide variety of different sizes and shapes. In general terms, prior art luggage products have been constructed with a relatively rigid configuration having a hard outer shell or casing designed to protect items contained therein, or with a soft and flexible configuration designed to facilitate storage of the luggage product into a relatively small, tight-fitting space. In this regard, soft and flexible luggage products have achieved significant popularity in recent years as a result of their ability to deform for temporary placement into an overhead storage compartment on a passenger aircraft, or beneath an aircraft passenger seat, etc.
Although soft and flexible luggage bags are extremely popular among persons who travel frequently, the soft and flexible nature of the luggage product can be inconvenient and/or undesirable in certain situations. For example, the flexible, floppy nature of the soft luggage bag can make the luggage product difficult to maneuver and carry, especially when the luggage product is relatively heavy as a result of items packed therein. Moreover, soft luggage bags have not been adapted for use with integrated caster wheels to permit the luggage bag to be pulled with a rolling movement rather than carried; instead, a separate wheeled cart which must be carried and manipulated as a separate luggage item has been required. Still further, when the soft luggage bag is placed upon a floor or other support surface, the bag tends to assume a crumpled or disheveled configuration resulting in potential wrinkling of clothing and/or possible damage to other items contained therein.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for further improvements in luggage products, particularly with respect to providing a soft and flexible luggage bag for fitting compactly into tight-fitting storage spaces, but which otherwise provides the conveniences and advantages of a rigid luggage product for ease of handling and protection of clothing items contained therein. The present invention fulfill these needs and provides further related advantages.